Priming Sugar

I am kind of new to home brewing and have made about 6 batches. I am using Muntons HME. My laser batch of pilsner was kind of flat. The one before an American Light was perfect. The only difference I can think of was the priming sugar I used. For the American I had bought a small bag of "priming sugar" i bought from a local brew shop. They have since closed. But on the pilsner I used dextrose. I thought the priming sugar was just dextrose. I had thrown away the instructions but looked up priming on the Montons web site. They said to use 1/2 tsp per pint and sine I was using 1 liter bottles, not completely full, I used 1 tsp per bottle.

My question is, is there a difference and if so how much dextrose should I use doe a 1 liter bottle.

 

I have not put dextrose directly in the bottle. For typical 5 gallon batches I go 5oz of dextrose with 2 cups of water. Boil and let cool. From there I add it to the beer in my bottling bucket and lightly stir. Thus far I haven't had any issues when storing them at 70 degrees for 3 weeks. Just a thought.

 

Yep, I quit using corn sugar a long time ago and just use straight table sugar. I use whatever Beer Smith tells me is needed to reach the level of carbonation I want, but I have had good luck with about three quarters of a cup of sugar boiled in a couple of cups of water and just dump it into the bottling bucket.

 

I use regular table sugar too. I have an app on my phone that tells me how much I need to use to get the c02 level I want for the style I'm bottling. I usually boil 16oz of water with the sugar then cool it down to about 70 degrees and dump it in my bottling bucket then rack the beer on top of it. I've never had any carbonation issues using this method.

 

"Priming sugar" IS just dextrose,or corn sugar. I've also used table sugar & demerara sugar to prime with. This last time,I brewed a PM NZ hopped IPA with a pound of demerara sugar in it & used dextrose to prime it. A couple more weeks & we'll know wass up. Here's the priming calculator I use that also tells how much of what to use to prime with; http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html
I boil 2C of water in a small SS saucepan for a couple minutes. Then remove from heat & stir in the weighed amount of priming sugar till the water goes clear again. Cover & cool a bit before adding to rising column of beer in the bottling bucket.

 

I have a porter extract kit from Midwest Supply, and the priming sugar packet that came with the kit is 5 ounces. The priming sugar calculators referenced in a previous post indicated for 5 gallons of porter I would only need 3.4 ounces. Any insight as to the discrepancy?

 

Yeah... The kits you'll get don't accurately account for carbonation to style. They all include 5 oz of priming sugar as it will give you a "good level" of carbonation for most styles at 5 gallons. When you actually calculate how much priming sugar to use, it is almost always less than 5 oz. I think this is done out of ease on their part to ensure enough carbonation for all styles (over carbed for most styles IMO)

As stated above, I use table sugar for most of my bottled beers and calculate amount by weight through an online calculator.

 

I still go by Papazian; for a 5 gallon batch

¾ cup corn sugar OR 1¼ cup DME OR ⅔ cup table sugar

works for me

 

Different styles by BJCP standards have different levels of carbonation per traditions for that style. An english bitter traditionally has lower carbonation than a pale ale. A wheat has even more. That's why the calculators have you pick a style first,so it can give results for your batch of that style.

 

Sooooooo here's a question. I cold crashed my Kolsch, I'm bottling 2 gallons to give away and kegging the rest for myself. when using that bottling calculator should I go off of current temp or what I fermented at? (Sorry for the noob question I haven't bottled in years and when I did it wasn't long before I said screw this and went to kegs)

 

Use the temp at the end of fermentation. I've used both and always had the batches primed with values calculated based on cold crash temp come out under carbed.

 

I've read that a number of people 'used to' use corn sugar but then switched to table sugar. Any particular reason why? I'm assuming it's a matter of convenience since corn sugar is less likely to be a household item whereas table sugar is? Or is the table sugar producing preferable results?

 

Convenience for me

 

I wrote a priming sugar calculator (link in my sig).

The correct number to use is the highest temperature that the beer reached POST FERMENTATION. The reason is that the calculator has to account for how much CO2 is currently in solution.

Colder temps let more CO2 enter solution. However, the cold crash temp doesn't apply since fermentation is done; what is there is there, but no more CO2 is being produced.

However, if the temp goes up, less CO2 goes into solution, and the extra is lost through the airlock in the form of bubbles. Even if you cool the beer back down, you get no more CO2 once fermentation is done.

This is why people who use the cold crash temp always get undercarbed beer. You're telling the math to account for more CO2 than can possibly be in solution.

 

Thank you........thank you...........thank you.............THANK YOU!!!

You can't imagine how many google searches I've done over the last two days, desperate to find someone.......ANYONE describing priming sugar amounts in "cups-worth".

I was beginning to think I was going insane......thinking I must have been dreaming........when I was SURE I had seen "one cup" somewhere in the past, perhaps even in my (hiding somewhere) Papazian brewing book.

All I could scare up was oz (which you just KNEW wasn't the same kind as those written on the side of the measuring cup)..........and GRAMS, which is the antithesis for any right-thinking farmboy/motorcyclist cum romantic Scotch/Irish lad trying desperately to just get a few bubbles in his brew.

Thanks, buddy!

 

^^like he said.
I made the mistake once of using actual temp. Cold crashed and used 40 degrees as the temp. Took three months to carb. Un-carbed beer taste like **** so I was pretty bummed. Had to place 18 bottles on a heating pad and they finally carbed up.

 

truth is, I weigh my priming sugar now. ran into some carbing issues the old way and have none of those issues since changing

 

What is this app, if you don't mind sharing?

 

It's called Homebrew Calculator. The icon is a pilsner type looking glass. I have an Android. Idk if they make it for iphones. It's a great little app. I use it for strike temp too and it's always on the money!

 

Really? iPhone owners make beer???






Kidding..........(sort of).

 

Hi.

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